Mon, May 28, 2007 at 8:57:35 pm
Prediction: nothing good will come of this.
The Bush administration is perilously close to jumping the tracks. I’ve supported the President through the long course of the war that began on September 11, but it’s starting to look like he’s simply getting tired; he won’t defend his administration against attacks, he won’t defend the country against illegal immigration, he won’t do anything to stop the media leaks that cripple our national security ... and now this: U.S., Iran end 27-year diplomatic freeze.
BAGHDAD - The United States and Iran broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze Monday with a four-hour meeting about Iraqi security. The American envoy said there was broad policy agreement, but that Iran must stop arming and financing militants who are attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi told The Associated Press that the two sides would meet again in less than a month. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Washington would decide only after the Iraqi government issued an invitation.
“We don’t have a formal invitation to respond to just yet, so it doesn’t make sense to respond to what we don’t have,” Crocker told reporters after the meeting.
The talks in the Green Zone offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were the first formal and scheduled meeting between Iranian and American government officials since the United States broke diplomatic relations with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy.
An AP reporter who witnessed the opening of the session said Crocker and Kazemi shook hands. ...
Speaking later at a news conference in the Iranian Embassy, Kazemi said: “We don’t take the American accusations seriously.”
Crocker declined to detail what Kazemi had said in the session, but the Iranian diplomat — formerly a top official in the elite Revolutionary Guards Quds Force — said he had offered to train and equip the Iraqi army and police to create “a new military and security structure” for Iraq.
Kazemi said U.S. efforts to rebuild those forces were inadequate to handle the chaos in Iraq, for which he said Washington bore sole responsibility. He said he also offered to provide what assistance Iran could in rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure, which he said had been “demolished by the American invaders.”
UPDATE at 5/31/07 9:29:24 am:
Taking a second look: Dollard: What No One’s Telling You About the US-Iran Talks.